Month: April 2016

Once again it was supermarket sushi day but today we had a chef sampler pack.

The pack was $14.99 or $7.50 per serve.

Dinner

Tonight we finished the chicken legs and thighs from this week’s supermarket roast chicken. We paired it with a wild rice mix and butter-soy broccoli. Butter and soy are an awesome combination for lightly cooked vegetables.

A quarter of the chicken is $2.50 per serve

Organic roccoli florets are $3.49 or $1.75 per serve

The country rice blend was $2.63 for the packet but that will make four serves, so 66c serve.

Split four ways, the $9.99 chicken is $2.50 a quarter or $1.25 per serve

One quarter of the $2.74 salad is 69c

The flatbread is 50c

Hummus is $3.99 per container and we used about 1/6 or 33c per serve

Lunch today cost $2.77 a serve.

Dinner

Continuing my experiment on the perfect way to cook the NY Strip Steak from Prather Ranch, I took it a little further than last week and cooked it medium rare. The texture is most certainly better bleu than medium rare, as is the flavor.

Tonight was also an experiment with Trader Joe’s Pickled Cauliflower medley. It is good: nice crisp cauliflower and great flavor.

12 oz of grass fed New York Strip Steak was $19.45 or $9.72 per serve

Three small potatoes each cost 55c per serve

The jar of pickled cauliflower is $3.99 and we used half, or $1.00 per serve.

Tonight’s dinner cost $11.27 per serve, which compares very favorably with a similar meal out.

We still have quite a lot of mushroom barley risotto from Sunday’s lunch, so we paired that with two pressure cooked lamb shanks. These came less well trimmed than we have been used to, and did not cook quite as well. As a result they were a little tougher than usual. They were also significantly cheaper than usual.

We used blue cheese crumbles instead of parmesan and it really works much better with the mushroom barley risotto and lamb, than the parmesan.

The two lamb shanks were $7.42 or $3.71 each

Two packs of fresh, sliced mushrooms cost $3.99 a pack, or $2 a serve

The pearl barley is $4.89 for a 28 oz bag, or 61c per serve

Two cups of broth is half a $1.99 carton or 17c per serve

Blue cheese comes in a $6.99 tub, and we finished off about 1/8 of the tub or 44c per serve

This was a mistake. The flavor of the bean pasta is fine, as is the texture, but it colored the cheese sauce a very unappealing brown-gray, which is why there is no photo today! Perhaps with a puttanesca sauce it might be okay, or in a salad, although why not just put in black beans?

The black bean rotini was $2.99 a pack, or $1.00 per serve

The cheddar works out to $1.00 a serve

Frozen peas add another 20c to each serve.

Tonight’s dinner was $2.20 per serve. Tasty but visually very unappealing.

We ended up shooting an unscheduled Lunch with Philip and Greg, since our guest was staying with us, so we had Mushroom Barley ‘Risotto’. Technically not a risotto because it uses barley instead of Arborio rice, but the result is a rich and creamy like risotto. Cooked in the pressure cooker for speed.

It’s more filling than you’d think, and the recipe makes more than six servings.

Two packs of fresh, sliced mushrooms cost $3.99 a pack, or $2 a serve

The pearl barley is $4.89 for a 28 oz bag, or 61c per serve

Two cups of broth is half a $1.99 carton or 17c per serve

The packet of parmesan cost $6.99 but we used about 1/8 for three servings, or 29c per serve

Add another 20c for onion, oil and herbs.

Lunch today cost $3.27 per serve.

Dinner

Since we were (finally) shooting the last part of our Filet Americain video we started in September in Amsterdam on preparing meat in the USA, we had to prepare it again to shoot that part.

The edam cheese is $2.32 per pack of eight slices and we used two slices per serve, or 58c per serve

As it was yesterday the bagels are 33c per serve.

Today’s photo is of our lunch, which cost $2.62 per serve.

Dinner

Tonight we had Indian take-out with a large group of friends. We had seen the reviews on Yelp, so we’ve been interested in trying Woodlands since we moved to Chatsworth. With at least one vegetarian in the group, it seemed like a perfect opportunity.

The food was every bit as good as Yelp reviews had led us to believe, but despite the flavor, it’s not particularly photogenic.

Smoked salmon at Trader Joe’s is a little more expensive at $5.99 for the 4oz pack, or $3.00 per serve

The pack of six onion bagels is $1.99 or 33c per serve

Cream cheese pack is $1.69 and we used about 1/3 or 28c per serve

Add 5c for capers.

Lunch today cost $3.66

Dinner

Tonight we did a variation on Pioneer Woman’s Easy Chilli Rellenos. Once you have the basic concept down, it’s easy to create variations. In this iteration we substituted butternut squash, bacon and smokey cheese for the basics in Pioneer Woman’s recipe.

We purchased butternut squash pre-cut. The biggest hassle with using it as an ingredient is the peeling and chopping. Buying pre-cut eliminates the issue. Steamed ahead of the casserole, it should be just soft when going into the oven.

Bacon and smokey cheese are always a good combination. We decided the bacon could be cooked a little longer, until just crisp, to add more texture.

You can tell the eggs are organic by the variation in color of the eggs, and the deep rich yolk color.

Organic eggs have more variation in shell color and deep yellow/orange yolks.

The pre-cut butternut squash was $1.99 for a 12oz pack or $1 per serve

We used half the $2.84 pack of ‘Dutch smoked cheese’ (not Gouda!) or 71c per serve

Eggs are 50c each or $1.25 per serve

We used bacon ends and pieces where the pack was $3.49 but we used about 1/3 or 58c per serve

A pint of half and half is $1.49 and half was used or 37c per serve

Add 5c for seasoning.

Tonight’s dinner cost $3.96 per serve. The squash, bacon and cheese is an excellent combination.

For our “quesadilla” we stuck with Trader Joe’s Refried Black Beans with Jalappeno Peppers. Because the Fontera salsa was not available at our local store, Greg substituted Casa Martinez Chipotle Fire Roased Salsa. We’re pretty sure this is the same salsa as the Fontera without the celebrity endorsement, and only $3.99 a jar instead of $4.69. Guess which we will be choosing in the future!

One flatbread (half of two) costs 50c a serve

Half a can of refried beans, shared across two halves: 26c

A very generous serve of salsa is 20c per serve

2 oz of cheddar split between two is 50c per serve

Lunch today cost $1.46 per serve and came together in about 10 minutes. Today we fried in ghee (clarified butter) but bacon fat is tastier.

Dinner

Thursday night is traditionally ‘steak night’ although we interpret that fairly liberally, but tonight it was an aged NY Strip Steak from the Prather Ranch delivery.

We grilled it very rare on the flat side of the griddle on the induction heater. While we generally prefer beef rare to medium rare, we have discovered that a NY strip steak toughens as it cooks. Even medium rare is quite tough. We had blamed the cut but it turns out that blue is best.

Blue means the exterior is seared while the interior is warmed, but not significantly cooked. That this is dry aged and pasture fed beef gave a really beefy flavor, and if you don’t want that, why eat beef?

We buy Prather Ranch meat because of the quality, no price so 12.8oz for $19.74 is definitely not the cheapest NY Strip you can buy, but I doubt you’d find better meat for $9.87 per serve

A pastured egg is 50c or 25c per serve.

Seasonings ran about 45c per serve

An organic lettuce cost $1.99 or $1 a serve

The packet of parmesan cost $6.99 but we used about 1/8 for this salad, or 44c per serve.

Instead of croutons, Greg fried off some haloumi cheese – a cheese that will not melt – at $4.00 for the pack, or $2.00 per serve.

Tonight’s steakhouse quality meal was $13.01 per serve. The steak was exceptionally tender with a great beef flavor.